April 27
CANADA:
2 nations divided by death: Ronald Smith makes his final bid to escape
execution
Albertan Ronald Smith is the only Canadian on death row in the U.S. He has
finally exhausted his legal appeals to avoid execution for the 1982 murders of
2 men, but is seeking executive clemency.
It happened along the highway that cuts through a picturesque mountain pass in
northwest Montana, not far from the Canada-U.S. border south of Lethbridge,
Alta., in a roadside stand of trees located almost exactly on the Continental
Divide.
The place where 24-year-old Albertan Ronald Smith murdered two young Montana
men in August 1982 was, looking back over nearly 30 years, a portentous
setting: Smith's cold-blooded killing of Blackfeet Indian cousins Thomas
Running Rabbit, 20, and Harvey Mad Man, 23 — whose fatal mistake was kindly
offering a lift to the drunk and drugged-up Canadian hitchhiker and his 2
friends from Red Deer, Alta. — has underscored North America's deep continental
divide over capital punishment, which is still in use throughout much of the
United States but was abolished in Canada in 1976.
Now 54, Smith is the only Canadian on death row in the U.S. He has finally
exhausted his legal appeals to avoid execution for his horrific crimes, but is
seeking executive clemency — and a new sentence of life imprisonment — at a
Montana parole board hearing to be held on Wednesday in Deer Lodge, a city in
the Rocky Mountain foothills where the state's maximum-security prison is
situated.
The 3-member parole panel — which will make its recommendation to Gov. Brian
Schweitzer, who ultimately decides Smith's fate — will hear arguments from
state justice officials, members of the victims' families and others who
believe Smith should, as originally sentenced three decades ago, be put to
death by lethal injection in the prison's execution chamber.
"This is the 1st time that we get to, as a family, sit in the judicial system
to face the guy that murdered our boys," Gabe Grant, uncle to both Running
Rabbit and Mad Man, told Postmedia News this week. "We intend to go down there
(to Deer Lodge) and be strong. We intend to be adamantly and unitedly joined in
denying his clemency."
The 62-year-old Grant, a housing administrator with the Blackfeet Nation in
Browning, Mont., said he will speak at the clemency hearing to describe how his
nephews' deaths were "devastating" for members of their large extended family
and led to the "early deaths" of his 2 sisters — the mothers of Mad Man and
Running Rabbit.
"It drove them to break down. They were seemingly normal people back then. But
when this happened, it completely devastated their lives," he recalled.
"We used to do all kinds of family things — the sisters and brothers. Our
mother was the hub of our family, Cecile, and when this happened, it put a
screeching halt to family activities because of the impact of what happened. We
eventually recovered to a certain point, but never to the fullest extent of the
good times that were enjoyed prior to that."
Montana state attorneys will lean heavily on the family's anguish in arguing to
parole officials that Smith does not deserve clemency.
The Alberta-born killer "remorselessly took the lives" of 2 cousins, Montana's
justice department states in its written submission to the clemency panel,
obtained this week by Postmedia News.
Running Rabbit and Mad Man "were loved by countless family members and
friends," the document states, noting how the victims' "loved ones have
suffered the pain and agony of their deaths for over a quarter of a century, a
pain that never ends. They can never be replaced."
Smith confessed to the gunshot murders of the two men. And he initially asked
for the death penalty before changing his mind and launching what became a
decades-long legal struggle to avoid execution for a crime he claimed was
carried out in a haze of drug- and alcohol-fuelled "foolishness."
Smith's legal team — including Montana-based defence attorney Greg Jackson and
Texas human rights lawyer Don Vernay — will argue that the Canadian inmate is a
model prisoner and a transformed human being, a man so filled with regret and
remorse over his murderous actions 30 years ago that the state should give
Smith what he so brutally denied Mad Man and Running Rabbit: a chance to keep
living.
"We would never, ever question the horrendous nature of the crime and the
horrendous impact it had on the community," Jackson said Friday. But echoing
several points made in the 19-page clemency application he filed on Smith's
behalf in January, Jackson highlighted the "tremendous growth and
rehabilitation" and "exemplary behaviour" the Canadian inmate has exhibited
during his incarceration, as well as "the remorse and repentance" he has shown.
"He's a changed man," the lawyer said.
Others will address the hearing, possibly Smith's daughter and sister — both of
whom recently told Postmedia News that they've nurtured close relationships
with Smith despite his long incarceration — as well as advocates on both sides
of what has become a lively death-penalty debate in Montana and the broader
United States.
But conspicuously silent during the proceedings will be the Canadian
government, which recently — and only reluctantly — sent a letter to Montana
officials seeking clemency for Smith.
The letter, signed by Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird, stated that while
the Canadian government "does not sympathize with violent crime," it is seeking
clemency for Smith "on humanitarian grounds."
Baird's letter also noted that the government's backing of the clemency bid
"should not be construed as reflecting a judgment on Mr. Smith's conduct," and
stipulated that his department was, in fact, "ordered" by the Federal Court of
Canada in 2009 "to support Mr. Smith's case for clemency."
In effect, the Conservative government has made clear that if its court-forced
request to spare Smith's life is ignored by Montana officials, it won't be
terribly miffed.
"Ultimately, decisions regarding Mr. Smith's case lie with the relevant U.S.
authorities," a Foreign Affairs spokesperson told Postmedia News earlier this
month. "Mr. Smith pleaded guilty and was subsequently convicted of murdering 2
people. These were admitted crimes."
Jackson called the Canadian government's grudging, quasi-backing of Smith "a
tremendous disappointment," adding: "The statement they've made (in the letter)
is the statement we're stuck with."
Opposition critics have condemned the government's lukewarm efforts in support
of Smith's clemency bid as a "deplorable" indication of the Conservative
party's ambiguous stance on capital punishment and as a "cynical" strategy that
could, in fact, "sink" Smith's petition to avoid execution.
Nevertheless, obtaining even Canada's nominal endorsement for the clemency
initiative was a significant achievement for Smith's legal team after the
Conservative government's previous decision, in October 2007, to halt
diplomatic efforts to prevent Smith's execution.
That move was prompted by a Postmedia News story that detailed fresh efforts by
Canadian diplomats to convince Schweitzer to commute Smith's sentence and
transfer him to a prison in Canada.
At the time, Prime Minister Stephen Harper said his government's decision to
abandon Smith was driven by concerns that lobbying for the killer's life would
"send the wrong signal" to Canadians about violent crime.
"We have no desire to open the debate on capital punishment here in Canada —
and likewise, we have no desire to participate in the debate on capital
punishment in the United States," Harper stated at the time. "The reality of
this particular case is that were we to intervene, it would very quickly become
a question of whether we are prepared to repatriate a double-murderer to
Canada. In light of this government's strong initiatives on tackling violent
crime, I think that would sent the wrong signal to the Canadian population."
But the Federal Court ruling in a lawsuit later launched by Smith's legal team
said the government's withdrawal of support for clemency was "unlawful." The
decision compelled Canadian officials to restart talks with Montana — and
eventually forced Baird's hand in the December letter that officially, if not
insistently, asked the state not to put Smith to death.
Grant acknowledged that critics of capital punishment have a point when they
say innocent people are sometimes executed in the United States.
"It's not that in this case," he said. "Ronald Smith, right from the get-go,
said 'I did it.' He boasted about it. He jumped up and down and said, 'Take me
— give me the death penalty.' So it's not a case of executing somebody
innocent.
"He was not remorseful then. I don't believe he's ever been."
(source: Postmedia News)
SINGAPORE:
CNB seizes 2.5kg of heroin
The Central Narcotics Bureau (CNB) has arrested a suspected drug trafficker and
seized 2.5 kilogrammes of heroin.
CNB said on Friday that the drugs have a street value of about S$375,000.
In a targeted operation on Thursday, its officers arrested a 36-year-old male
Singaporean, whom it had been monitoring.
The suspect is believed to be distributing a sizeable amount of heroin.
He was caught in his HDB unit at Simei Road.
Officers found a black sling bag containing 6 bundles of heroin inside a
cupboard.
The suspect will be investigated for drug trafficking. If convicted, he may
face the death penalty.
(source: Channel News Asia)
INDIA:
Maimed kin want gallows for killer - Khusboo’s father has dark circles,
grandmother spends sleepless nights
Khusboo Kumari’s father L.M.N. Shahdeo may perhaps be mulling a chilling irony
on Friday. Murderer Bijendra Kumar will get his sentence on Monday, but
Khusboo’s family has been serving a sentence of sorrow and social stigma since
her death on April 27, 2011.
The murder of a pretty college student by her spurned boyfriend will be a year
old on Friday. But it is not the gory anniversary that has brought the case
back into limelight. Ranchi judicial commissioner S.H. Kazmi on Friday
convicted Bijendra alias Gullu for beheading Khusboo, reserving the sentence
for Monday.
Khusboo, an arts student of Ram Manohar Lohia College and an intermediate
examinee at St Xavier’s College, was killed outside the exam hall. The
assailant, 24-year-old diploma engineering student from Jamshedpur, Bijendra,
had murdered her because Khusboo had agreed to marry the man her parents chose
for her.
It was termed a sensational public murder driven by passion. But for the girl’s
family in Ranchi’s Tupudana, sorrow came cloaked in shame, as Khusboo and
Bijendra became fodder for unsavoury gossip.
The duo had known each other from Jamshedpur, where the girl stayed with her
grandmother (naani) Basanti Devi in Sonari and studied in DAV School there
before joining the Ranchi college. Bijendra, a mechatronics student at the
city’s RD Tata Technical Education Centre, was apparently a pupil of Khusboo’s
maternal uncle Rajesh Aditya, which is how the 2 became friendly.
Father Shahdeo can’t accept the brutality of his eldest daughter’s death. But
life is no less brutal, says the 50-year-old father of 4 who works in a private
electronics firm.
“I won’t go inside,” he said, standing outside judicial commissioner Kamzi’s
room where Bijendra was produced. “My blood boils over when I think how he
killed my daughter. I saw her in a pool of blood,” he added, dark circles under
his eyes telling their own story.
“I haven’t slept a single day without remembering my daughter. My wife Sheela
Devi has become bedridden with shock. My surviving children face a barrage of
questions from people. We have stopped interacting with people or attending
ceremonies. We are just tired,” said the man who had been tirelessly fighting
for Bijendra’s conviction.
He now wants Bijendra to be hanged. “Death is the only penalty for such a
youth. He killed my daughter and sentenced us to a lifetime of suffering,” he
said.
When this correspondent asked for his phone number, he came up with an
unexpected reply. “My daughter and I shared the same phone. She had set her
favourite ringtone in it. After she died, the phone’s ringtone reminded me of
her. I didn’t know how to change it. One day, I just smashed the phone. I don’t
use any phone since then,” he said.
In Jamshedpur, Basanti Devi echoed her son-in-law. “Bijendra should be hanged.
I haven’t had a single sound night’s sleep since Khusboo’s murder. I get
recurring nightmares,” she said.
She also negated the fact that Khusboo and Bijendra had a love affair.
“Khusboo’s marriage was settled by us with her consent. Nothing was done
forcibly. She was happy,” the grandmother asserted.
For Shahdeo, all that is in the past. Asked about life beyond Bijendra’s
sentence, he said: “No matter what he gets, our sufferings will continue. We
were trying to fix our 2nd daughter’s wedding. The moment the boy’s family came
to know the incident (read Khusboo’s murder) they withdrew. The scars Bijendra
gave will never heal.”
At Bijendra’s home, after repeated knocks, a female voice was heard. “Aap logon
ko to sab pata hi hoga. Humlogon ko is baare me koi baat nahi karna. Aaplog ja
sakte hai. (You all must know everything. We don’t want to talk on this. Just
leave).”
(source: Calcutta Telelgraph)
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